NRG Expert Geothermal Report Ed 1 2011

Price: £1,050.00
Prod. Code: NRGGT1

This NRG Expert report provides the most fully comprehensive global study of the Geothermal Market. The report provides comprehensive analysis of the global geothermal sector and gives a close look at the key players.

Key reasons to purchase this research

Use this market intelligence product to further your understanding of the market

Get an analysis of the key players in the industry

Assess the short and long term future of the Geothermal Market

Make informed business decisions

What’s in this report?

NRG Expert’s Geothermal report Ed 1 2011 contains the following:

A company overview of major and minor players active in the sector

A regional analysis of the players and how the technology is being deployed

Revenue and Cost analysis

Geothermal Capacity and Utilization

Background to this research

In addition to national grid applications, geothermal energy is being promoted as a regional resource combining the exploitation of renewable energy resources together with environmental advantages. The technology ranges from large-scale regional energy systems, to household heating and cooling.

Current plans
Over the next five years high growth markets for the sector are expected to continue to be the top six main markets, Kenya, Iceland, Mexico and South America. For the latter, developers have already been awarded concessions to explore new sites in Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Peru. In the middle of 2010 the Chilean government announced plans to invest up to USD 200 million in geothermal projects and will grant over 170 geothermal concessions over the next two years, which should result in the country installing its first generation plant in the mid-term. Kenya and Mexico and the other six major markets are likely to commission projects in the advanced stages of development. As part of a strategy to raise revenue Iceland is considering exporting electricity to other countries. A feasibility study is being undertaken to build a sub-sea electric cable linking Iceland to Europe to sell electricity generated from geothermal projects to Britain, Norway, Holland and Germany.
Another potential growth market is Japan. The country’s geothermal power plants were largely unaffected by the recent earthquake and tsunami unlike the Fukushima nuclear power plant. As both provide base load electricity and Japan has a good geothermal re-source.
Australia is also developing geothermal projects, and has several EGS and Hot Sedimentary Aquifer (HSA) projects in the pipeline.
Cost is still a major barrier to the development of projects and access to finance for the exploratory stages is still a challenge.

Future plans
There are signs of a move towards the increasing use of binary geothermal plants. These plants tend to be used at lower temperature resources. As viable high temperature geothermal sites are being used or are under development and the creation of more viable sites through hydraulic fracturing, known as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), is not close to full commercialisation. With only two EGS projects in operation, the economics is not fully understood and there are concerns about induced seismicity. An even more innovative idea is the use of underwater geothermal resources for projects, but this would be extremely expensive and a long way in the future.
There are also reports that lithium in geothermal brine could be used to generate additional revenue for owners of geothermal projects. One project such project is under development in the Salton Sea in California in the USA.